Virginia Beach rolling out new tourism campaign - for locals

VIRGINIA BEACH

Think you can't find a parking spot at the Oceanfront?

"You may have us confused with someone else," reads a draft of a new city Web page.

Believe the Virginia Beach Convention Center is for out-of-towners?

"Sorry," the yet-to-be launched site says, "the new convention center is used much more by locals."

Yeah, but we all know the resort strip is for tourists, not Beach denizens. Right?

"This claim is about as ridiculous as a Chihuahua wearing a cardigan," the site retorts.

Sensing a theme here?

Virginia Beach is about to launch an advertising campaign - called the "Gift of Tourism." The idea is to show Beach residents how the tourism industry feeds the city's economy and improves their quality of life.

It's also designed to combat the perception that the Oceanfront, particularly during the summer, is meant to be a tourist-only destination.

The debate - townies versus tourists - is a common one in resort communities across the country, but Beach officials think they can make some headway if they articulate how tourism and convention business brings in cultural activities, more and better restaurants and helps lower taxes.

"We can pinpoint that a whole lot better," said Jim Ricketts, the director of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The campaign - which is still getting tweaks and could publicly launch next month - is a two-year program that will cost $150,000, said City Manager Jim Spore. Chuck Applebach, the convention bureau's vice president of marketing and strategic partnerships, said he'd like to see the program continue and succeed.

The budget will come from the city's Tourism Growth Investment Fund, an account funded, in part, by amusement, hotel and meals taxes. The campaign's newspaper and radio advertisements will feature disclaimers that they are paid for by that fund, which generates most of its revenue from out-of-towners.

The program will include the Web site - www.giftoftourism.com - dealing with what the city calls "tourism myths." The site, penned in a chatty tone, also will offer links helping locals find restaurants, attractions and events.

"What we find is a lot of time you have people who have a negative view of the Oceanfront, but they haven't been here in years," Councilman John Uhrin said. "The Oceanfront has continually evolved. In my mind, for the better."

Ricketts said the campaign has to give accurate data or it's "spinning a story without anything to say to back it up."

"It behooves us, really, to do a better job getting the information out so the citizens in the community are better informed," Ricketts said. "So they can make decisions. Most reasonable people would say, 'Yeah, the industry is a good industry.' "

The campaign can't be too sunny, some residents say.

"If it's just the good side of it, a lot of people are going to be cynical," said Chandler Scarborough, past president of the Council of Civic Organizations.

"They'll ask, 'What are the pieces you're not telling us?'... The more folks know about it, the better it is. But marketing by definition is selling a specific point of view."

Councilwoman Reba McClanan said the timing is suspicious.

The goal seems to be making residents feel better about investing in tourism just as plans move forward to potentially spend tens of millions of dollars on the development of the old Dome site and the construction of a headquarters hotel for the convention center, she said. "It's almost like it's an afterthought," McClanan said. "Hey, you guys, we decided that, now that we need you all to cough up some money, you need to go along with this. That's one way to do things."

Applebach said the campaign has been under design for months. He said the City Council made communicating the value and benefits of tourism a priority, and this campaign is the implementation of that.

Still, some blowback is to be expected, said Greg Ward, a partner at BCF, the local marketing agency that helped craft the concept.

"With any kind of advertising, it's difficult to please everyone," Ward said. "There's going to be a minority that complain about any message."

Richard Quinn, (757) 222-5119, richard.quinn@pilotonline.com